Day in The Life of an IBM Summit Intern

Hello! My name is Santiago Carvajalino and this summer I was a Summit Sales Intern with IBM Canada, as 1 of 24 interns across Canada that were selected to join the Summit Sales Internship Program. I am also currently going into my 3rd year at The Schulich School of Business in Toronto, ON where I am completing my Bachelor in Business Administration (BBA).

In the weeks leading up to my start date at IBM, when the COVID-19 global pandemic was at its peak, I was unsure if our internship was going to take place. Many of my peers had their offers rescinded or cancelled. Thankfully, IBM honoured their internships. Birgit Siegel Allison (Summit Program Director), Kowshiga Nanthakumar (2019-2020 Summit Program Coordinator) worked extremely hard to convert our entire internship program to an online format in a matter of weeks. From onboarding to our three-day virtual orientation, we were made to feel supported and provided with the appropriate resources needed to hit the ground running.

My first day at IBM was May 11, 2020, and I can proudly say that the past 10 weeks have been a life-changing experience. For me, these past 10 weeks have been a mix of experiential learning, educational workshops, captivating projects, mentorship, networking, and client engagements. Being aligned with IBM’s Global Markets business unit, I have been tasked with assisting client executives that consult business leaders (at some of the world’s largest firms) and enabling them to transform their enterprises through leveraging IBM’s cloud and cognitive technology.

Below is what a typical day in my role may look like:

06:00 a.m.:

I like to start my day with some exercise. When I do, I have more energy throughout the day and can sleep better. I typically either go for a bike ride, a jog, weight lift, or box.

08:00 a.m.:

After taking a shower and eating some breakfast, I usually check LinkedIn as well as other news outlets such as The New York Times, Bloomberg News, and other sources. In 2020, it's even more important to stay updated because major changes across economies, politics, and society can take place overnight. It is important to stay on top of industry news to be essential to our clients.

08:30 a.m.:

 After catching up on current events, I turn on my IBM laptop and reply to any emails or messages from colleagues. I also check that my calendar is updated, so I can plan out my day in the most efficient manner. Any IBMer will tell you that they live and breathe by their calendar. It is critical to plan out your day/week and stay on top of deadlines and meetings. However, during my 10 weeks, no two days have been the same. I was often asked to suddenly join a client call or prepare a report for a client executive. These experiences taught me the importance of time management to be successful in sales.

09:00 a.m.:

As part of planning my day, I prioritize client-related matters and other urgent items. Keeping track of all deadlines is extremely important.

10:00 a.m.:

Most meetings start around 10 a.m., especially because at IBM there is so much internal collaboration with members across all of Canada including Vancouver and Calgary. To be respectful of the different time zones most meetings are scheduled after 10 a.m.

Today I met with my Intern Challenge team. The Intern Challenge is an internal case competition that we are given five weeks to work on. We are put in teams of five or six and work together to solve a real-world problem for a client by leveraging IBM technology. Our team is a mix of technical sellers (engineering or computer science background) and solution sellers (business, consulting, sales background). Each team is assigned two sales coaches, to provide feedback and help the team deliver a client-ready proposal. Each team presents the solution to a panel of IBM senior Sales Executives and a winning team is chosen.

Today our team was discussing our strategy in building the business case and the client business value of our proposed solution. Our team chooses to meet every day in the morning to ensure deadlines are met.

11:30 a.m.:

After meeting with my intern team, I completed some more work then began preparing for a client call scheduled for the afternoon. The client executive I was shadowing instructed me to conduct some research on the client’s line of business, organization, and financials. The purpose of this meeting is to better understand some business concerns the client is facing, therefore, it is important to know their industry and business well.

12:00 p.m.:

Time for lunch! I like to eat outside and enjoy the fresh air and stretch my legs for a bit. Self-care is super important, especially when working from home!

12:30 p.m.:

The client call begins and the client executive allows me to introduce myself to the client. My role is to take notes and debrief the internal IBM team.

01:30 p.m.:

I have a quick 15-minute call with the client executive to go over some of the notes I took. He is very pleased with how the conversation went and the information he was able to take away from the meeting. We begin working on how we will tackle the next steps with this client.

2:00 p.m.:

As part of the Summit Intern Program, you also have the ability to join different committees. I joined the Summit Campus Ambassador committee where our goal is to broaden IBM’s exposure to students on campuses across the country. Our committee tries to meet a couple of times a week to ensure we are on track for the recruiting season. During this meeting, we were sharing recent updates and most of the ambassadors have been in contact with relevant stakeholders on campus trying to coordinate events. Our committee’s challenge is that most of this upcoming school year will be online, so we must come up with a virtual strategy for student engagement.

3:30 p.m.:

Multiple times a week, I check in with my manager to update him on my progress, projects, and we engage in a general discussion on my time at IBM. Today I reviewed progress on a couple of projects for a few client executives. My manager has been with IBM for decades and knows the business extremely well. He was able to provide me with some amazing feedback to improve my work. We also discussed my career path and short/long term goals in and outside of IBM, and my manager provided me with some extremely useful advice and a new perspective. The mentorship I have received is one of my favorite things about my internship, especially when I can pick the brain of so many experienced and knowledgeable individuals such as my manager.

04:00 p.m.:

To wrap up the day I schedule some time with the client executives that I am supporting. I use this time to update them on some of the progress I made on the project I have been working on, and they provide me with feedback and congratulate me on the work I have been doing so far. We finish the meeting by scheduling a touchpoint for early next week.

05;00 p.m.:

Once a week the “Social committee” schedules a game night for all the interns across Canada in the Summit Program. They also, organize weekly social lunches, workshops, yoga classes, and a wide variety of events to help build a strong sense of team spirit. A silver lining of this pandemic is that I have had the opportunity to connect with so many talented individuals across Canada over video conferencing. Usually, the night begins with some storytelling of how everybody’s week or day went and then we engage in some virtual card/board games.

Thanks for coming along for a day in my shoes, I appreciate you taking the time to give this a read. If you would like to discuss my experiences or have any questions for me, feel free to send me an invite or LinkedIn message, I’m always looking to meet new people!